Union Pacific to improve Nebraska infrastructure

Union Pacific Railroad is enhancing Nebraska's transportation infrastructure by investing more than $29 million in the rail line that runs between Grand Island and Havens.

The project is in progress and scheduled to be completed by the end of November.

The project includes replacing 88,400 concrete ties, installing more than 33 miles of new rail, spreading 115,500 tons of ballast, renewing the surfaces at 16 road crossings and replacing six switches.

Union Pacific is using a modern track renewal train, the TRT 909, which installs rail and concrete ties in one pass. The TRT can install up to 6,000 ties in a twelve-hour day. The track renewal train consists of approximately 30 rail cars, with each car capable of carrying 210 concrete ties. Three sets of gantry cranes move the concrete ties forward for the TRT to drop into place and the machine then threads the new rail onto the ties. The old wooden ties are picked up and discarded rail is threaded out as the machine works its way down the track. A conveyor positions the removed ties for the gantry cranes to load them onto railcars for movement to a facility for sorting.

Union Pacific plans to invest $3.6 billion in its rail network during 2012, supporting America's current and future freight transportation needs and enhancing the safety and efficiency of the railroad's 32,000-mile network.